5km from the department of Carapeguà in the town of the same name in the Potrero district, a group of women of limited means found out about the Comité de Mujeres Emprendedoras (Committee of Women Entrepreneurs) programme and decided to get together to find out more about it. These women keep busy, they are all artisans and weavers. They weave blankets that their husbands and children take to sell through street vendors outside of the town of Carapeguà. By way of these sales, the women are looking for a bit more help in order to increase their household incomes and improve their quality of life.

These women need loans to invest in their respective work and thus to be able to obtain sustainable growth that will let them grow both as a group and individually

There are 19 people in the photo, of which two are daughters of members of the committee.

Additional Information

About Fundación Paraguaya

Fundación Paraguaya is a financially self-sustaining social enterprise that promotes entrepreneurship in urban and rural areas through microfinance, education programs, and more. Its focus on agriculture has helped many farmers boost their crop yields. And a number of other borrowers have taken out loans to start and grow social businesses that have helped deliver eyeglasses, medicines and other helpful services in their local communities.

This is a Group Loan

In a group loan, each member of the group receives an individual loan but is part of a larger group of individuals. The group is there to provide support to the members and to provide a system of peer pressure, but groups may or may not be formally bound by a group guarantee. In cases where there is a group guarantee, members of the group are responsible for paying back the loans of their fellow group members in the case of delinquency or default.

Kiva's Field Partners typically feature one borrower from a group. The loan description, sector, and other attributes for a group loan profile are determined by the featured borrower's loan. The other members of the group are not required to use their loans for the same purpose.

About Paraguay

A portion of Mujeres En Desarollo Group's $1,625 loan helped a member the majority of the committee members will invest their loans in their present activities and buy things such as cloth and thread to weave the bed covers, etc.